


Victurus te Saluto

by flugantamuso



Category: Smallville
Genre: Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-06 03:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flugantamuso/pseuds/flugantamuso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sweet fluff from Season 1 that completely disregards most canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Victurus te Saluto

The only Latin Clark had ever known was the phrase above the Smallville Public Library's door, 'Victurus te Saluto,' which meant, 'He who is about to win salutes you.'

Clark had not been the sort of child to go looking for the translation if it had not been readily available underneath the Latin phrase. The days of Latin being part of the repetoire of every schoolboy, it seemed, were over, and in Smallville they had been over for a long time.

Lex would have been the sort of child to go looking for the translation, Clark thought. He would have been the same sort of child as he was a man, inquisitive, curious, too curious.

Clark frowned, the image of little Lex still in his mind.

ooo

The first, and probably only time Clark won a game of chess with Lex, he was so filled with satisfaction that he couldn't help baskign in the light of his success. Moving in to checkmate he Leaned back like the lord of the castle, and drawling, "Victurus te saluto."

He had hoped to sound impressive, and perhaps he did, because Lex dropped the piece that he was holding and looked at him in wide-eyed astonishment.

Clark stirred uneasily in his chair. It wasn't the reaction that he had expected.

"Clark," said Lex, evenly, "do you know what that means?"

Clark was unsure of himself, perhaps the translation was wrong and he'd said something terribly insulting. "He who is about to win salutes you?" he ventured.

Lex relaxed. "Yes, that is one of the common translations."

Clark was suspicious. "What do you mean, 'one of?' What other translations are there?"

Lex sat back with a slight smirk on his face, in control again. "I don't think that that's important Clark."

"And I think that it is."

"Why would that be?"

"Because your face is doing that thing again."

Lex instantly composed his face. "As a matter of fact," he said smoothly, there is only one translation-" Clark opened his mouth-

"-but several interpretations," finished Lex, smirking again.

Clark closed his mouth. "Tell me," he said, leaning forward.

Lex said, "I don't think that it's entirely appropriate for your virgin ears."

Clark glowered.

ooo

It took him an hour and fifteen minutes online to find out what Lex meant.

When he did, he was startled enough to mangle the mouse.

The thought that Lex might--that he might-he couldn't even think it without his stomach turning, but at the same time he couldn't stop thinking about it.

He spent the next few days thinking about it, or trying not to, which amounted to the same thing, or avoiding Lex, which inspired thoughts that made him turn red.

Lex, he knew, would smirk, and smile, and make a joke of it, and it was funny, but he now had images in his head that could pop up whenever he saw Lex, or perhaps whenever he didn't see Lex, if his new obsession was any indication.

He had thought about it so much that the idea of it was becoming less horrible to him, in fact, if his body was telling the truth, he might it appealing.

"Now you're just stupid," he tells it.

"I'll try not to take that personally," said a voice behind him, and he turned to see Lex standing insoucently, hands in his pockets.

Clark's dad has at times compared Lex to a snake, and Clark can see the similarity, though not in the ways that his dad does. Lex is smooth, almost touchable (and Clark is flushing bright red). Lex moves like it takes no effort, lazily. He's cunning and dangerous and these thoughts are not helping Clark at all.

"I see that you've found the meaning of 'vicurus te saluto'."

Clark wanted to sink into a hole and never some out, but his body was abnormally interested in the proceedings.

And Lex had noticed. He was smirking, just as Clark had known that he would. He moved closer to Clark, and said in knowing voice: "Well, what about it Clark? You were the victor."

He was putting it in such a way that if Clark wanted to he could smile and laugh, and that would be that. Lex would never mention it again. But that would just be another lie, and Clark had lied to Lex too much already. He won't lie here, where he doesn't have to. This may be as honest as he'll ever be able to get with Lex.

So he reached out, put his hands on either side of Lex's no-longer-smirking face, and kissed him. It was a quick, dry-mouthed kiss, the same kind that he got from his parents when he was a kid, but it opened to the door to so many possibilities.

"Not today," he said, and shocked was a good look on Lex.

It was like a victory, like winning at chess, and like chess, it didn't last long.

Lex suddenly looked thoughtful. He put his hands back in his pockets, which seemed to be his default position, and licked his lips.

It made Clark shiver, and Lex' eyes narrowed. He looked intensely interested. That looked good on him too.


End file.
